Greek energy minister meets with Russian counterpart ahead of PM's visit to Russia
MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - Greek Minister for Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis has held consultations with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
Miller and Lafazanis discussed "supplies of Russian gas to Greece and other issues of cooperation in the field of gas," Gazprom said. "It was stressed that the diversification of export routes plays an important role in increasing the reliability of supplies to European consumers."
The ministers discussed prospects for the "development of Russian-Greek relations in the area of energy" within the context of preparations for an upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Alexios Tsipras and President Vladimir Putin.
Shipments of Russian natural gas to Greece began in 1996. Gazprom exported 1.745 billion cubic meters of gas to Greece in 2014, according to preliminary figures.
Greece is becoming an important partner of Russia in the wake of the latter's decision to abandon the project to build the South Stream gas pipeline and transform it into the Turkish Stream project. The new pipeline is expected to bring gas to the Turkish-Greek border, from where gas pipelines could be built into the European Union, with whose rules (the Third Energy Package) Gazprom is unhappy.
Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said earlier that the date of the meeting between the Russian president and Tsipras has not been agreed on yet. Greece has said that the meeting with Putin is expected to take place on April 8.